At Nasrallah’s funeral, Hezbollah and Iran set to put on a ‘show of strength’

Hezbollah will on Sunday hold a public funeral in Beirut’s southern suburbs for its former secretary general and emblematic leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed on September 27 during a massive Israeli strike on his headquarters.

The Shiite leader, who had been head of Hezbollah since 1992, was buried in a secret location until an official funeral could be organised. On Sunday he will be reburied in a plot near the Beirut airport road. The airport, which has been the site of tensions between Hezbollah and the Lebanese army in recent days, is expected to close for four hours.

“The main gathering will take place in the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium. The ceremony will last around one hour, during which the secretary general of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem will give a speech,” said Sheikh Ali Daher, the funeral committee coordinator, according to local media.

Along with hundreds of thousands of mourners who are expected to attend, representatives from “nearly 79 countries will be present” including Iran, which pledged “broad public and official participation”, Daher said.

The ceremony will also pay tribute to Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah’s successor, who was also killed by Israeli strikes in early October.

The militant group has been greatly weakened by the elimination of its leadership and military command and the terms of a ceasefire signed on November 27, which put an end to two months of war with Israel and more than a year of cross-border hostilities triggered by Hezbollah in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7.

Despite being weakened politically and militarily, observers say Hezbollah hopes to emphasise the international nature of Sunday’s event to demonstrate that the group is still a key player in the Middle East.

FRANCE 24 spoke to economist and journalist Albert Kostanian, who hosts one of Lebanon’s leading politics broadcasts “Vision 2030” on LBCI (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International), to discuss the symbolic and political significance of Nasrallah’s funeral.

FRANCE 24: How symbolic is Nasrallah’s funeral for Hezbollah, and what does the event mean to the militant group?

Albert Kostanian: The funeral is hugely symbolic in Hezbollah’s eyes and for their supporters, because Hassan Nasrallah wasn’t just their leader, he was an unparalleled charismatic figurehead. For them, he was a symbol of strength but also religion. He was almost thought of as a saint, as Shiite tradition accords an important role to mystical symbols.

A significant number of Lebanese Shiites believe that he will go down in history as their liberator and as one of the region’s greatest political and religious leaders. Whether or not you are a fan of Nasrallah, you can’t deny that he made an impact in his time and had influence beyond Lebanese borders.

He was also one of the faces of the Iranian axis, which stretches from Lebanon to Yemen via Iraq and Syria – up until the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December. Hence the expected attendance on Sunday of foreign delegations and supporters from these countries.

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At the event, which is expected to have a festive atmosphere, Hezbollah wants to confirm Nasrallah’s status as a great leader with a ceremony worthy of his stature. The group will also use this ceremony – because it is highly political – to reaffirm its own status, durability and popularity.

The fact that Nasrallah’s assassination was not followed by a public funeral was a great humiliation for Hezbollah and its supporters. After their crushing defeat, the group and the Iranian axis want to give a show of strength to show that they are back. Or at least that they are still here and not quite dead.

The funeral is going ahead even though Israeli soldiers are still occupying positions in south Lebanon. Does this show how much Hezbollah has been weakened?

Absolutely. The reality in the south [of Lebanon] is humiliating for Hezbollah even though it claims to have won the war against Israel. A few days ago, Israeli jets broke the sound barrier flying over Beirut. We will have to wait and see what provocations Israel has in store for Sunday to remind the crowds that it controls the air, the sea, and also the south of the country.

The funeral is happening in an extremely unfavourable context for Hezbollah and the Iranian axis, which have been defeated from every angle.

As well as eliminating its military leadership, two secretary generals were assassinated by Israel within a few days of each other. And in addition to this series of assassinations, south Lebanon has been totally destroyed while the southern Beirut suburbs, Hezbollah’s other territory, are partially destroyed.

The Israeli army will occupy five strategic positions in south Lebanon for an indefinite period, beyond the new deadline set in the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah is under surveillance, banned from entering or conducting military activities south of the Litani River and two Western generals – one American and one French – are leading the ceasefire monitoring committee.

Even in Lebanon’s domestic politics, the election of the new President Joseph Aoun and the nomination of the Prime Minister Nawaf Salam were out of Hezbollah’s control. Neither of them were on the group’s radar. It’s been a knockout defeat for Hezbollah.

The funeral also presents a challenge for Lebanon’s new leaders as Hezbollah invited the president and the prime minister to attend the ceremony. What message will they send by attending – or not?

For the new leadership, Nasrallah is troublesome, as are Hezbollah. He was adored by part of the Lebanese population, notably within the Shiite community, and reviled by the rest, who saw Nasrallah as a warmonger who repeatedly triggered the destruction of the country.

A fringe of the population even see him as a terrorist leader as members of Hezbollah were condemned in 2022 by an international criminal tribunal for the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. A few Lebanese politicians have been assassinated and the only thing they had in common was being hostile to Hezbollah.

How will the new ruling powers respond? Such is the difficulty of governing Lebanon with all its contradictions and divisions.

I think that the best decision would be to send representatives to the ceremony. Going there in person would be a mistake because of Nasrallah’s divisive reputation. It would seem like they were legitimising the last war that Nasrallah decided to wage and which led to his assassination, but also to destruction in Lebanon.

This article was adapted from the original in French.

France24